Bitter Melon for Bitter News

Bitter Melon

I am a person who has been VERY lucky regarding good health. I have never been seriously ill. Like many, I suffer from allergies, am prone to colds and moan about the occasional ache or pain. I have been blessed and I am NOT a saint. I love sweets & breads, neglect to stretch & exercise regularly and prefer coffee to water.

My back surgery, a year & a half ago, has been my only experience with a major medical event in my life. Even before the fractured vertebra was diagnosed I just accepted that back pain was the norm, an inconvenience, and went on with my life. Before this I had never been hospitalized.

I have all of my organs.

I have 20/20 vision (last I checked.)

I have never had to have braces or a root canal.

I switched my primary care doctor recently because my former doctor ALWAYS seemed too hurried to bother with patients. You'd wait 45 min to an hour to see her and then she would shove a prescription at you and show you the door.

I discovered the WONDERFUL Cushing Street Family Practice hidden away in a 120 year old blue & yellow adobe building right here in my neighborhood. The family clinic is PA (Physician Assistant) owned & operated by two women who wanted to create a better medical practice.

After practicing in Arizona for more than 20 years, Ricci Silberman and Molly Wheelwright had a good idea what their ideal practice would look like. It just wasn't a vision shared by any of the physicians they'd worked for over the years...

"We both watched physician friends and colleagues and bosses burn out because of all the pressures from the business end and get more disillusioned and thus pressure us and themselves to see more patients to make the same amount of money," Wheelwright says. "We noticed these doctors were not treating their staffs as well as they might have. We noticed that their esthetics and offices could have been nicer."

"We started talking," says Silberman. "Wouldn't it be great to have our own practice? Wouldn't it be great to have a beautiful location? Wouldn't it be great to treat our staff well? Wouldn't it be great to have a good level of work versus family, so we don't get burned out?"

Silberman (on the left in the photo) and Wheelwright renovated the building and decorated it with attractive wood and tile, comfortable couches and work from local artists. There are no harsh fluorescent lights or bleak waiting areas or exam rooms..."

The practice draws a mix of Tucson professionals from downtown office buildings and underserved homeless, low-income and elderly patients from the nearby inner-city neighborhoods, and has also carved out a small niche treating transgender patients. It remains the only primary care practice in downtown Tucson.

"We take care of patients who some docs have been a little uncomfortable with," Wheelwright says. "We pride ourselves on being open. We really put our patients first. We treat them very well." (Original article by Stephen Cornell here.)

The office has the feel of an art gallery-When I first walked in-it felt like an extension of home. (Funny. So much of what we spend our time searching for far & wide is right under our noses all along!) Finally, a knowledgeable-progressive medical practitioner with a lovely bedside manner!

Routine physical-low blood pressure, heart sounds good, blood work great EXCEPT ...

PREDIABETES

My fasting blood glucose level has qualified me for borderline diabetes. The gravity of this diagnosis didn't fully hit me for a couple of days. Holy Sh*t!!!

How could this happen!?!

I know exactly how this came to be and it is difficult to admit. I've managed to align (perfectly) all of the right factors over the last year & a half to bring about this result.

1. The Inactivity of post surgery recovery has become the habit. I've had difficulty in reestablishing my active self. (Gone are my California hikes to the beach.)

2. Poverty which has resulted in subsisting on bagels, cheese sandwiches, pasta, potatoes and other cheap processed starchy foods. (No one forced my to pursue a career in the arts.)

[Add lines 1. & 2. to get Weight Gain. (APPLE shaped makes it sound so charming.)]

3. A family history of Diabetes-both sides I think.

What leaves me reeling is just how quickly this happened. I underwent every medical test and screening possible right before my surgery and was in perfect health! Luckily-this is just a very clear-loud-serious wake up call. I am so grateful to have found a doctor who pays attention to the red flags and has a very calming and encouraging way of working with patients. The extent to which I will have to make lifestyle changes is great. (Even though I have adopted pretty sensible eating habits recently-cooking almost all of what I eat from whole organic simple foods-So much will have to be modified.) After a good cry today which has partially cleared out the sudden sense of shock, fear, disappointment and frustration-I am ready to take this on with a positive attitude. The research has begun. Have spent a good part of the weekend exploring low glycemic recipes, herbs, super foods and supplements.

I sauteed a Bitter Melon (with garlic, soy and a little fermented black bean) tonight and it is truly HORRIBLE! (This was my first experiment with a blood glucose lowering meal.) I really don't think it is a flavor I can describe. Bitter is fine. I have no issue with bitter. The Bitter Melon actually smells really nice raw & uncut-slightly sour, green and fresh. Cooking seems to unleash its evil. This vegetable tastes slightly toxic. It has an almost poisonous aftertaste which is really disconcerting. If it helps lower my blood glucose level I WILL find a way to make it palatable! I will blanch the next one (I bought 2) as letting the slices sit in colander with salt for 15 min didn't produce a very desirable taste. I can't tell you how many times I have picked up one of these culinary marvels in an asian market out of curiosity.

It is not wise to mock the Bitter Melon.

(This I now know. Good that it is available in supplement form!)

And so, I reclaim my former glory!

(even if this means I will dine exclusively on Bitter Melon from this point on-who needs croissants!)

Projects for the Easily Entertained

Fresh Coconut Macaroons

The coconut that I received in my Co-op basket has been rolling around my kitchen counter for about a month now. I was expecting to crack it open to find that my procrastination had ensured its demise. Not a bit rancid-the juice was sweet & restorative-what a shelf life! I tried to break through its armored surface with a hammer & a VERY sturdy knife inserted into a slight fissure in the shell. I fast realized that this endeavor would result in a trip to the Emergency Room or at the very least a broken kitchen knife! I couldn't help but applaud the tenacity of those first souls to discover that there was a fine edible flesh within such an impenetrable encasement! (Did we learn of this by watching the birds & monkeys?!?) I discovered that a quick bake in the oven does indeed make the process much easier at Epicurious. There is a link to print out a grocery list for the recipe which might not be so funny if the ingredients consisted of more than a:

Fresh Brown Coconut.

There was a great deal of paring & grating this afternoon-a true work out! I finished the project with very soft hands and a slight dusting of white flecks on my lap, (and the couch!) and some lovely macaroons!

A Certain Mood

Photo Credits & Original Sources:

1. Blood Orange

2. Olaf Wipperfurth Photography

3. Paper Lanterns

4. Lychee Fruit

5. Pu-erh Tea

6. Papilio Ulysses Butterfly Wing

7. Paper Lanterns

8. Olaf Wipperfurth Photography

9. Candied Ginger

A Random June Night in My Kitchen

Grapefruit Yogurt Cake

My Art blog is fast becoming a look what I made for dinner blog! I have been finding so much peace over the past few weeks in measuring, dicing, combining, stirring, sauteing, charring...

The science of the kitchen.

The various textures of fresh summer vegetables & herbs... the broiling Tucson heat, the view of the mulberry tree from the kitchen window, the acrid smell of onions, the spongy quality of eight ball zucchini, the heat and smokiness of various types of chilies and grapefruits straight from the grove.

As a starving artist I had been subsisting, mostly, on bread, pasta & processed cheese-so to have fresh ingredients in the house has been heaven.

There is something SO satisfying about cooking with simple ingredients. I love rustic galettes, big bubbling pots of beans, herbs & chilies and coarsely chopped vegetables-I love cooking Wabi Sabi style.

There is something strange about citrus at night (I've always associated it with morning/sunlight) but I couldn't resist the idea of fresh grapefruit cake as a finish to a LONG hot day...

Playdough for Grownups

Green Onion Pancakes

with

Ginger Chili Dipping sauce

There was an ENORMOUS bunch of green onions in my CSA share this past week; a testament to 'Growth' despite our hostile desert environment! (actually, onions like it here don't they?) I'll happily sprinkle a few here & there but this glorious bunch called for something special. Found this easy step by step recipe (with pictures!) at MOMOFUKU for 2. There are SO many recipes out there for green onion pancakes! I chose one of the first recipes I came across which looked good and didn't require the purchase of any ingredients I didn't already have on hand. (Good recipe but the dough tends to dry out very quickly in my 80 degree/table fan cooled kitchen so a few minor adjustments will have to be made next time-maybe a little oil in the mix.)

Fun fun fun with dough! While needing, rolling and forming the dough into green onion filled coiled buns; I couldn't help but think of playdough. I've seen (and made) my share of this magical dough as I taught preschoolers for over four years. (A long, long time ago!)

Ah, playdough!!

A childhood next door neighbor (and partner in many an escapade!) and I got into a great deal of trouble for throwing a lump of homemade playdough with great force straight up onto the ceiling! We were pretty young so I can only surmise that we were testing the limits of our little universe with this experiment. The trouble, and reason we got caught, was that it was REALLY sticky and it didn't come back down! There it was s-l-o-w-l-y stretching down from its point of contact; suctioned onto the popcorn ceiling. Our giggling was abruptly silenced when we were discovered by parents-we gave ourselves away in the hilarity of it all! (But than again how could we have denied involvement if we hadn't gotten caught red handed? "Nope I didn't have any playdough... how on earth did it get up there?!!?") The logic of childhood!

Crooked Sky Farms-Promoting Kitchen Creativity (one share at a time)

Sorrel

Gnocchi in a Sorrel Sauce

I've waited SO patiently for enough funds to start a CSA session and finally I was able to commit! It was explained that our first share was a little more scant than usual due to a difficult growing season but even so I was thrilled! (Grapefruit, Peaches-small but REALLY good, Green Onions, Red Onions, Dried I'itoi Onions, Sorrel, Wheat Berries, 3 types of Summer Squash & Red LaSoda potatoes.) The Sonoran Spring has been longer and cooler this year which is fine with me-I'll gladly wait a week or so for corn & cucumbers in exchange for cool weather!

I have fallen head over heels for the simple & lovely sorrel sauce found in Eric Pateman's The British Columbia Seasonal Cookbook. (recipe above.) The cream based sauce is actually really light-the fats are tempered nicely by the acidity of the sorrel. The lemony flavor of the sorrel was perfect on a warm evening. Made a few minor tweaks to the recipe-I used a tad bit more sorrel, cut the heavy cream with whole milk and added a couple of pinches of sea salt to the finished sauce before adding the gnocchi. (I also pan fried my gnocchi in a little butter to brown them-they are too squishy for my tastes if I don't!)

Red Onion

Red Onion, Feta, & Olive Tart

I prepared this quick & easy puff pastry 'tart' that I found on the BBC Good Food magazine site for lunch today. I caramelized my onions a little more-tasty but not as pretty as their finished tart! I used a light feta cheese & Moroccan cured black olives (to add a little more salt) and balance out the sweetness of the onions.

I feel really grateful for all of the time spent creating in the kitchen. I have been struggling with art materials-so not much has been actualized lately! Waxes and gelatin capsules behave VERY differently here in the desert than they do in the Bay Area!! My working process is slowly evolving to produce the desired results here in the dry heat. In the meantime I'll use a zucchini as my muse!

The Flavor of Calm

Wilting in the Afternoon Heat


Fresh Mint Ice Cream

After enduring the first of many 100+ degree days here in the desert-I felt like we needed a simple lift of our spirits. My dust covered ice cream maker has been taking up space at the back of a cupboard for a VERY long time. Why I haven't pulled it out sooner is a mystery as this is the hottest most miserable clime I have ever set up home in. Sticky, half wilted and very cranky I have not yet resigned myself to the conflagration that is Summer in Tucson.

There has been much distress over the past few days-nights kept awake by money worries and mosquitos. The horror of oil drenched birds and the blatant neglect & demise of so many riches in the Gulf is weighing heavy on me. (this is another post altogether) I could write for hours about my feelings regarding this but I just need to take a moment to exhale.

Now, it seems a little convoluted to self medicate with ice cream in the face of so much misery but my spirit tends to get really heavy on occasion. I sometimes find myself sponging up all of the stress & emotions around me and have to remember to clear the whole cloudy mess out of my system and reground myself.

(I need a good tickle and ice cream.)

Actually, it was the need for a calming cooking project that brought the ice cream maker out from its darkened corner. I headed for the sanctuary of the refrigerated produce room at 17th street market and the familiar blended smell of various varieties of asian produce which always reminds me of living in Oakland. I remembered on the drive home just how soothing fresh peppermint is. The atrocious heat in the truck was made bearable by the release of the cool scent of green. Peppermint grew like mad in my garden in California so it seems a shame to purchase a bunch! I really need to start my herb garden-there is no excuse!

I found late afternoon peace in the rinsing and preparation of the leaves and the stirring of cream.



(This particular recipe turned out to be REALLY rich!!! Heavy cream & whole milk definitely tipped the scales of decadence! Next time sorbet!)